


Happy To Join You

by raelee514



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: M/M, Season 4 Moment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-22
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-11-03 12:09:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10966944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raelee514/pseuds/raelee514
Summary: Jimmy regrets taking Ivy out for a drink.





	Happy To Join You

Thomas looked up from his book at the knock on his door. He recognized it as Jimmy — it strike him funny that he could recognize a knock. But then he considered its owner and smiled a bit. Jimmy walked, dressed in his suit, hat in his hand and his hair flopping into his eyes. He looked a tad unsteady on his feet. 

“Hello?” Thomas offered.

Jimmy grabbed the chair he always sat on and pulled it toward the bed. Thomas noted the length between the chair and bed. He was pulling it closer and closer lately. 

“Got Ivy drunk,” he leaned back and shook his head.

“You as well?”

“Not a lot, but she was squiffy and sick.”

Thomas sat up straighter. “Where is she now?”

“Oh, Anna has her.”

“Mrs. Patmore?”

“Asleep I guess, thank god.”

Thomas settled back down. Anna wasn’t someone to worry about. 

“Alfred thinks I did on bloody purpose.”

“Didn’t you?”

Jimmy looked at him. “I was bored. Alfred was annoying. So, I asked her to go with me to the pub.”

Thomas stopped himself from offering his services for pub outings. 

“Thought it be a bit of fun, you know? She’s just not used to drinking.”

“Was it?”

“No,” Jimmy laughed. “But she hung on my every word, she gave these besotted eyes…” Jimmy made a face.

Thomas instantly averted his eyes off of him. He tried not to make his attraction to Jimmy obvious. They had a silent agreement to never discuss it. Ever. Thomas rather thought at this point Jimmy may have thought Thomas over him. It was far from true.

“I just wish…”

“You just wish?”

“I don’t know, can I have a cigarette.”

Thomas grabbed his box of the table by his bed and lit two, leaning forward to hand it over to Jimmy. Their fingers brushed and Thomas closed his eyes a second. Calculating and measuring the smallest things. 

“I shouldn’t have written to Lady Anstruther. It’s been bothering me all day.”

“Was rather forward,” Thomas said, moving his legs over the side of the bed. Realizing Jimmy was staying more than for a few minutes. 

“Well…” Jimmy mouth turned up in a smug grin. “She was always rather forward herself.”

Thomas wasn’t shocked. 

“Guess I just miss it…”

“Her?”

“No, it.”

“It?”

“Sex, Thomas. I know you aren’t some wilting flower.”

Thomas shook his head and focused on his cigarette. 

“Do you…”

“Miss it?” Thomas asked for him.

“Yeah.”

“What do you think, Jimmy?”

“It is enjoyable then?”

“It’s sex, I know you are no wilting flower,” Thomas snapped back. 

Jimmy's cheeks reddened and he looked away. "Yeah. Well girls around here don't do what Lady Anstruther seemed to quite enjoy doing."

"Isn't she a Dowager? Was married, might be the difference."

"Her husband died in the war, yeah." Jimmy tipped the chair back and looked at the ceiling. "About the only fun around here is flirting with Ivy."

"You mean causing trouble."

Jimmy leaned forward and gave Thomas a look. "One to talk, Mr. Barrow…. Get Nanny West fired yet?"

Thomas smirked. 

"Well?"

"The plan is in motion."

"All because she gave you an order."

"It's enough," Thomas said.

Jimmy looked at him. 

"It is, isn't it?"

"You aren't that cold hearted, Mr. Barrow."

Thomas snorted. "Tell that to everyone else."

Jimmy took a drag on his cigarette. Thomas tried not to watch how his lips circled the cigarette. Tried not to wish he was the cigarette. It was a daft thought for one thing. 

"Tell me the truth," Jimmy said.

"She likes the power. Takes one to know one there. But… She ordered me to stay away from Sybbie. Also, don't know something about her not wanting Sybbie to have an egg with her tea bothers me."

"This about Lady Sybil?"

Thomas wondered if the stab he felt when Sybil was mentioned would ever fade. He hadn't thought about that but maybe it was another reason. He had nothing really to go on, except for a hate toward the woman. It was mutual but she wasn't about to win the war. There was more to his distaste for her than the reasons the others assumed. Not that it bothered him. 

"Is it?"

Thomas looked back up at Jimmy. He saw it. Thomas swallowed and looked away from him again in case his expression gave too much away. "A bit maybe… It just a gut feeling. May as well just say it's hate because she ordered me about."

"Easier on everyone else's puny brains."

Thomas laughed. 

"That wasn't fair of me."

"No, no it wasn't."

"They just don't know you," Jimmy said. He leaned forward and put out his cigarette. "Speaking of… you gonna miss her?"

"Who?"

"O'Brien."

Thomas snorted.

"Thought not. I mean I envy her the grand adventure, but ain't sorry to see the back of her. She was always still sniggering in my ear about you."

"What?" He felt angry now.

"Oh dumb stuff. Trying to stop us from being mates. Told her to sod off." 

"Been ignoring her best I could… I don't miss her. Maybe once I might've but…"

"But," Jimmy gave him a long look, guilt settling in his yes. "Thomas…"

"Don't. It's done and over." Thomas held up his hand and stopped him from making an apology for it all. He didn't want to hear it. He didn't need to hear it as long as Jimmy was comfortable in his room. 

"I really shouldn't have sent that valentine."

"No, no you shouldn't've."

"Ever done that?"

"Send a stupid letter?"

"Yeah."

Thomas chuckled. "The Duke of Crowborough."

Jimmy eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "What?" 

"The Duke of Crowborough. I wrote him… ten, twenty letters. Soppy stuff too."

"What?" Jimmy was staring. 

"He wrote me too."

"What?"

Thomas laughed and lit himself another cigarette.

"You. You and a Duke?" 

Thomas nodded.

"And here I thought I was something bedding Lady Anstruther."

"Yeah, well… I don't like to brag."

"Sure you don't… well come on. Let me see one of his love letters?"

Thomas eyes widened. "You'd want to see that?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I…"

"I don't…." Thomas felt surprise. Jimmy seemed oddly comfortable with the idea of two men and love letters. It rattled him.

"Come on, is it too soppy to show me? Racy?" He raised his eyebrows. 

"No, no. I if I had them I'd show you -- maybe not all of them. But we had to be careful. They were soppy, less so racy unless you knew -- kind of wrote as in-jokes."

"Don't have them?"

"He burned them."

"He burned them? How he get them?"

"Lady Mary showed him up here, when he was staying at the house. Philip was here to see her -- thinking about marrying her. But his Lordship decided not to break the entail as we'd hoped. He was supposed to get me away from here," Thomas shook his head. "I was stupid."

"But he got in your room, took them?"

Thomas nodded.

"Then burned them?"

"It was smart really… He knew me pretty well."

"What are you on about?"

"He was supposed to get me out of here. Instead he broke it off with me. I reacted badly, I threatened to blackmail him. He laughed in my face. I said I had proof. He grabbed the letters and waved them in my face. I tried to get them, but he tossed them into the fire. Told me his mother was always telling him not to put things in writing. Guess, I'm the only man he wrote soppy stuff too -- not that I can prove it."

"Wow."

"He burn yours?"

"How would I know?"

"Maybe you should've sent him a Valentine."

"He's not worth me."

"No, no, I guess he's not…" Jimmy nodded. "But just think, all those soppy words you wrote could be in his drawer or something."

"Gathering dust."

"Maybe he still reads them… the racy in-jokes."

Thomas rolled his eyes then. "Was it just Ivy that got squiffy?"

"I told you I'm not…too awake for one thing."

"Here then," Thomas lit two more cigarettes.

Jimmy took it. "Funny thing…"

"What's that."

"Having more fun now than I did down at the pub," Jimmy laughed. 

Thomas held his breath. 

"Next time I decide to go, taking you with me…" Jimmy gave him a long look. "You can hold your beer right?"

"Better than you, let alone Ivy…" he hoped he didn't look too thrilled at the prospect. "I'd be happy to join you." 

Jimmy exhaled a cloud of smoke. "I better get to bed."

"It is late," Thomas glanced at his clock. 

"Goodnight… Thomas."

"Goodnight, Jimmy."


End file.
